You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on
Written by Skype Journal on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and ebay and presence and Skypeæ‚å¿— and skypejournal and Life and Life and wishlist and Every Post and observations and stories.
Written by Skype Journal on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Skype and VoIP and Business and ebay and Skypeæ‚å¿— and skypejournal and Europe and Strategy and North America and Marketing and statistics.
Some experts are saying that VoIP in the enterprise represents serious security risks [CIO], making a company vulnerable to vishing (phishing via VoIP) attacks. One anonymous security researcher claims that bank networks will be subject to penetration and the phone lines to hijacking - thus leading to the theft of credit card numbers and bank account data.
Now I'm not a VoIP security expert, but I can make an educated guess, based on my many years of computer experience, that this guy, who goes by the pseudonym "The Grugg", is grossly exaggerating the security issues, potentially to gain some attention. It's absurd to think that banks, who have been dealing with electronic security issues for several decades now, would even think to put their data and VoIP networks on the same lines. Besides telecoms, I've worked at a big mutual fund company. Even they had backup and redundant networks, with firewalled access to account information.
While it's likely true that little technology exists at present to filter out vishing attacks, there's nothing that says a bank's data network has to run on a VoIP network. And just because a bank's telecom system is converted to IP telephony doesn't mean the data network is suddenly at risk. In fact, if someone wanted to mount a vishing attack on a bank, they could do so already using an existing VoIP system (sorry, not going to tell you how). And they wouldn't have any more or less success than if the bank had a VoIP network or not. (On the other hand, a VoIP phone system could potentially be taken offline by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack if a load balancing system is not in place.)
Despite what The Grugg (give me a break) is saying, I'm not so sure that bank data networks are at risk. Of course, I could be proven wrong, but let's hope I'm not, as this expert is saying that vishing attacks on banks will probably start later this year. I wonder how he knows this.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Networks and Business.
Alarm.com, a home security service that uses VoIP as a means of communication, signed their second partner, SunRocket. Earlier this year, they announced their first partnership with Vonage. [via PC Mag] Vonage recently announced that they would be providing optional VoIP installations courtesy of a third party. Now if Vonage is smart (or maybe Alarm.com?), they'll work out a package deal for customers whereby they can have both their VoIP and Alarm.com's security system installed simultaneously.
While both current partners are "pure play" VoIP providers, Alarm.com is also aiming at partnerships with ISPs next. ISPs, of course, offer "triple play" services: television programming, Internet access, and VoIP. The PC Mag article talks about quad-tier services, which would include cellular phone service, and refers to Alarm.com's service as being like a fifth tier for ISPs.
A similar VoIP-based security alarm service is being offered by InnovAlarm, who will be getting US$10M in venture capital.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Networks and Services and Hardware and Residential.
My friend, Stuart MacDonald, is chair of the Canadian Internet Registry Association's nominating committee. He asked me to mention the CIRA board elections are now taking place. If you own a .ca domain name (hey, that includes me), it's time to vote. Here's the slate of who's running - it includes my friend, Tris Hussey. You can vote online here.
Written by Mark Evans on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Main Page.
Many, many years ago, when I was still working in the bricks-and-mortar world instead of online, I cursed this new telephony feature called voice mail. It soon became one of the most inefficient features of communication, often causing me to have several conversations with an inanimate object until I could reach the desired person. Not surprisingly, at least to me, John Parkinson points out this talking-to-voicemail phenomenon as being the primary motivation behind a communications feature called "voice presence", which started with IM (instant messaging) client and is now being explored witih VoIP. He goes on talk to about the four reasons why VoIP is a good call [CIO Insight], a conclusion reached based on the analysis of a pre-VoIP telephony system's CDRs (Call Detail Records) and call analysis. (I'll warn you that it's fairly technical article.)
The gist of the analysis is that, from an enterprise viewpoint, there were four lessons learned, which result in the conclusion that VoIP is a better choice. Lesson one: use of voicemail wastes time and reduces productivity. Lesson two: conference calling is growing in use, and is poorly handled using regular phones. Lesson three: conference calls often use multiple channels. I.e., voice and text chatting, application sharing, etc. Lesson four: VoIP offers a unified communications channel to support these activities, including video calling.
On a related note, Leon Erlanger has a 4-page article on building VoIP into the enterprise [ComputerWorld], providing several company case studies including Subway restaurants, a school, a credit union, and a training center. Enough there to probably extrapolate from, in case you are planning to convert to VoIP in your business.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Business VoIP and Networks.
Avaya is offering a free download of their Custom Edition of SIP for Dummies (PDF, 2+ Mb, 74 pgs). You do have to register, but if you want a starter guide to SIP, it's probably worth the effort. SIP is an open standard, and it drives Asterisk IP PBXes as well VoIP soft phones Gizmo Project and others. IP telephony systems/ software that use SIP tend to be more affordable than proprietary systems. A VoIP system in general is estimated to reduce business communications costs by 20-40% - which can be enough to keep a struggling small business afloat. So if you are considering a VoIP system, you may want to at least browse this free ebook.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Standards.
Cable VoIP Really Gaining Ground
Cable giant Comcast is so pleased with their one million VoIP customers that they are apparently adding 4000 new jobs
[GigaOm]. as Om says, it's proof of the success that cablecos will
enjoy because of offering triple play services. People want simplicity,
and getting a single bill each month satisfies that demand. Comcast
only got into the VoIP business earlier this year.
New VoIP Consortium Member: Anue Systems
The University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab is overseeing a VoIP Consortium,
where members can jointly test products with a VoIP system emulator as
well as variety of hardware and software provided by Consortium
members. Anue Systems is the latest member. Get more details at TMC Net.
Intel Offering Plug'n'Play VoIP Development Kit
Intel
is branching out into other hardware arenas with a development kit for
plug'n'play VoIP. The kit, the Intel UPDI (Universal Phone Device
Interface), consists of a software framework that is intended as a
uniform platform for soft phone and hardware device interfaces. [via MyBroadband] Earlier this year, Intel launched a phone adapter to allow VoIP calls over regular phones.
Written by ewriter on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Services and Business.
It’s not too big of a surprise that various wireless providers would focus on building out high speed wireless broadband options throughout Northern California. Whether its 3G, muni WiFi or even one day WiMAX, early adopter dominated regions like Silicon Valley and the Bay Area (that includes San Francisco) are pretty obvious candidates. But so are less high profile cities in and around Central Valley and beyond.
Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the US, says in the next few weeks it will publicly announce that its 3G (HSDPA) network is available in cities in Northern California like Stockton, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento and Vallejo. The company says the service has been available in San Francisco and San Jose since December 2005, but we haven’t heard of too many people using it.
Cingular spokesperson Ritch Blasi says the networks in Stockton and Fresno were already turned on earlier this month. The speeds are supposed to get between 400 kbps to 700 kbps. (Anyone in those areas want to test it out and report back?)
Cingular is pushing to offer 3G in cities across Northern California, but there are other wireless broadband options moving in. Sacramento is looking at a muni WiFi option, as is San Francisco. San Jose, Mountain View, and the entire Silicon Valley region has WiFi plans. While Mountain View’s GoogleFi is already up and running, most of these networks won’t be live for some time, so that gives even slow-moving Cingular ample time to sign up 3G subscribers. Will you sign up?
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Mobile and Broadband.
The largest consumer technology, gaming & entertainment event of the year -- DigitalLife 2006 -- will be taking place in less than a month (October 12–15) at the Javits Center in New York.
And we know how to get you in for free ... 
Instead of shelling out $15 for a ticket, you can get free tickets by using the source code “INSIDER” on this page, where you can print out your own tickets, too.
Sounds too good to be true? Don't be a skeptic, check it out ...
TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: DigitalLife Is Free
Tags: digitallife 2006
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Gadgets.
Written by Skype Journal on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and Business and ebay and Skypeæ‚å¿— and skypejournal.
While online music sites like Napster are still trying to figure out how to make money, San Francisco-based digital music startup IODA has been creating a pretty good businesses by finding a focus: Indie bands. IODA (stands for Independent Online Distribution Alliance) helps small independent music labels distribute music digitally, has raised no VC funding to date, and has been able to grow organically. Today IODA said it will buy London-based digital music company Uploader, in a broader plan for international expansion.
I met with IODA founder/CEO Kevin Arnold last year and he’s a true music hipster — he founded the music festival Noise Pop and is the kind of guy that says he’s driven by his love of the Indie music community. He learned the music business during a stint at Listen.com, before RealNetworks bought it, where he built the Rhapsody music service. This week he’s in Berlin, attending Popkomm where the company announced the Uploader acquisition.
IODA’s premise is that 20% of global music industry sales come from independent music. Targeting the indie niche the company seems to been able to find some success, while some more mainstream music peers are struggling. Last year Arnold told me the company was a “2.5 million to 3 million dollar company,” so it’s likely grown considerably since then. Uploader is IODA’s first big international push. Uploader was founded in 2005 by a few longtime European independent music veterans, like Martin Goldschmidt, the man behind European label Cooking Vinyl. Uploader will be IODA’s European arm and will likely be the first step in a major international expansion. While the companies didn’t release the details of the deal, I would say that the Uploader deal was valued no more than $20 million given the size of other digital music deals this year.
The fact that a three-year-old startup that has never taken VC money, is buying an international firm means that the company is likely doing pretty well. IODA has some 600,000 tracks from more than 2,700 independent labels around the globe, and now with Uploader’s 150 labels representing 50,000+ tracks, they’ll have a lot more. The company distributes independent music to sites like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, (check out the full list here.)
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Media.
It's beginning to look a lot like HD around here, with Microsoft's announcment today at the Tokyo Game Show 2006 that is has a library of 110 HD Xbox 360 games that will be available this holiday season in Japan, including the highly anticipated Blue Dragon.
(Look for a lot of those to be headed our way, too.)
Also, Microsoft is going "old school" with a tribute to “Pac-Man” with the announcement of the first “Pac-Man” World Championship will be held in early 2007 using Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade.
The Xbox 360 games showcased included:
If this isn't enough, read the complete press release on the Microsoft web site.
TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: Live from Tokyo: New Xbox 360 HD Games!
Tags: blue dragon, microsoft, pac-man, tokyo game show 2006, xbox 360
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Microsoft and Video Games & Gaming and xbox 360.
Aswath isn’t going to be thrilled with the headline, but I am still calling it VoIP. Cable giant, thanks to some aggressive marketing and bundling has managed to chalk up a million digital voice (VoIP) customers. The growth has been so good that the company is adding 4000 jobs. Yet another proof of CableCos continuing success with voice and triple play offerings.
“Comcast Digital Voice and the Triple Play bundle continue to exceed our expectations. Customers are attracted to the convenience of the service and the value of the $33×3 offer,” said Steve Burke, chief operating officer of Comcast Corporation. “We’re increasing our job growth projections this year to meet the accelerating customer demand for the bundle and our Comcast Digital Voice service.”
UBS Cable and Satellite Analyst Aryeh Bourkoff believes that the company crossed the million subscriber mark at the end of August which translates to about 310,000 VoIP subscribers for the first nine weeks of the third quarter. That is up 32% from the previous quarter. Bourkoff had an estimate of roughly 390,000 net adds in the current quarter, but at current pace, the company could add roughly 420,000 VoIP subs in the third quarter. [via UBS Research] What this means? The heat has been turned on a notch for the likes of Vonage, and even the phone companies which are struggling to roll out their video (thus the triple play) products.
Written by Om Malik on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Broadband.
So you think you think you can vlog, huh? Newcomers like PodTech and Rocketboom now have a bully in their sandbox, with Yahoo aping online video shows in a new partnership with Current TV launched Tuesday night.
Yahoo Current certainly has access to star power, with a first-day clip featuring Bono behind the camera filming bandmate the Edge get out of bed, do yoga, and assault paparazzi. And a daily “Yahoo Current Buzz†show about “what’s hot in the world and around Yahoo†will be produced by Madeleine Smithburg, a co-creator of the Daily Show.
The style – which Current exec Joanna Drake Earl called “humorous, passionate, and whimsical†in an interview Tuesday – is very similar to a vlog, or perhaps MTV News, with marginally better effects but still a DIY quality.
When we first heard about the announcement, we thought this was a cool application of video-sharing tools – like embeddable links and comments – to in-house professional video content. But after watching the videos themselves, this seems to be more of the pro-am stuff we are all used to.
Yahoo and Current are also partnering on three channels of mostly user-generated content devoted to action sports, car enthusiasts, and traveling (which aren’t bad advertising verticals, but that’s another story). When user-contributed video for each of the categories is featured online, creators will earn $100. If it is featured on Current’s TV channel, they earn $500.
Current prides itself on incorporating user-generated content (about 30 percent of its programming), but it’s limited in its availability to the 30 million U.S. households who subscribe to its cable and satellite partners (mainly Comcast and DirecTV).
So what need does this serve? It’s not like anyone’s lacking a place to post their online video. Still, having a direct, free link to its viewers may make Current more relevant…and perhaps more buzzworthy. Yahoo already has the biggest audience for an online video site, with 21.1 million visitors in July, according to comScore. And dividing content into channels has definitely worked for Yahoo in the past.
The New York Times notes that this is the first time Yahoo will place commercials (15- to 30-second pre-roll ads) next to user-generated videos. We’re sure a lot of people would give their eye teeth for the analytics on that!
Written by Liz Gannes on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Media.
TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: Asterisk replaces Cisco CallManager
Tags: asterisk, callmanager, cisco, unified communications, voip
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Cisco and Asterisk and unified communications.
Written by Russell Shaw on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Products and Microsoft and WiFi.
If you want some insight into why the iPod is such a smash success - and why Microsoft's Zune will have a tough time getting a solid market foothold - check out National Post Robert Fulford's recent column. At 74, Fulford likely falls outside the iPod's "target market" but the fact he finds his Nano "the finest private luxury object of this century so far" reflects how the iPod has resonated with so many consumers (more than 60 million and counting to be precise). If Fulford starts publicly pining for an iTV device, you know Apple has scored another home run.
Written by Mark Evans on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Microsoft and iPod and Main Page.
Written by Russell Shaw on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and General.
Written by Russell Shaw on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and General.
Disney CEO Roger Iger did a bit of chest thumping today and said that they sold 125,000 movies for about a million dollars at the iTunes store.That’s is good news for him and Disney, but I wonder how much money is being earned by Apple.
With current file sizes, experts in the content delivery business say that it would cost between $1 to $2 to deliver a movie. In other words, the cost of delivering movies could be as much as $250,000, though given Apple’s size, it might get better pricing. Any guesses/estimates on how the pie is being sliced between content owner, content distributor and delivery network provider. It be great help, for future reference as well.
Written by Om Malik on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Media.